It is a small island (300,000 inhabitants) in the Indian Ocean, 8,000 kilometers from Paris. The poorest department in France. That's why the damages caused by the destructive cyclone Chido are still incalculable.

France is rushing help by ship and military aircraft to its poor overseas territory of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean that has been shattered by its worst storm in nearly a century.

Tropical Cyclone Chido struck southeast Africa, killing "perhaps a few thousand" in France's islands territory of Mayotte on Saturday and then hitting independent Mozambique on Sunday, officials said.